Possible budget cuts

New Hanover County commissioners could be facing an 11 to 14 million dollar deficit in the next budget.

Last week, they asked school administrators to look into options for shaving 2 million dollars out of their budget.

This week, they upped that number to a potential 4 million dollar budget cut.

New Hanover County Superintendent Dr. Al Lerch held a closed door work session today to discuss what programs and areas they would cut back, if necessary.

“We’re getting into a question of what makes New Hanover County schools, New Hanover County schools,” said Dr. Lerch. “85% of our budget is actually personnel and I figure that this 2 million dollar request would affect about 100 people.”

We want to emphasize, these cuts are not a sure thing.

County and school officials are just looking at different scenarios at this moment.